Topics — Andy Arthur.org

Doesn’t smell much like grain, cow shit, or burnt plastic 🐮 🛢️

Andy | August 10, 2026

That was my first reaction stumbling out of bed, running down to Stewart’s to get another bottle of milk in plastic soon enough to be drunk and turned in plastic smoke, but don’t tell a liberal, I think to myself after those wilder days in the Finger Lakes and Pennsylvania where it’s normal to do all those things.

1,007 miles later at 14.1 mpg works out to be roughly the $300 I had budgeted for summer vacation gas. ⛽ Time goes by so dang quickly but the trips to Pennsylvania and around the Finger Lakes were fun, 🐮 got my share of cows and stinky black smoke from burn barrels, mountain vistas and nights and sometimes days drinking beer and smoking weed. 😶‍🌫️ 🍻 How fast those days come and go, it seems like it was just pouring out as I was packing my bags to head out to the Finger Lakes, we’ll yesterday. But as they say, 11 days in space, but when you return, it’s the same damn place. The plastic houses and 25 year old Honda Civics which are so reliable, the lawns and plastics recycling bins. 🏘 Honestly, I am actually quite happy with the gas mileage I got on the SuperDuty figuring all those hills, rough dirt roads and hardly being easy on the peddle as I wanted to enjoy my new SuperDuty. ✉️Wasn’t that much junk mail awaiting me after a week and a half to toss in the white garbage bag with the wrappers soon enough to be sent up in smoke.

Back to the dirty ol’ apartment, 🛀 things were about as clean as I left it. Unpacked the major things last night, but there is still much to be done. After my evening hike at Robert V. Riddell on the way back to the Albany, I was on track to get home around 9 PM but then there was a lane closure on the Thruway, that forced 3 lanes of traffic into one and stop and go right before the Schenectady Exit due paving. 👷 Completely obnoxious when you are trying to get home. 😡 But whatever, I guess the road needed to be paved, and that is a lower traffic time to do it. 🚚 🚘 I guess though it’s good, I needed to wash up my gear, and the thing is summer vacation was going to end eventually.

That said, I definately got the most value possible out of my last day of summer vacation. 😎 Hiked through the Buttermilk Falls State Park Gorge, swam at Buttermilk Falls State Park, spent a few hours exploring Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve, drove up through Danby State Forest along that rough Burnt Hill Road in my SuperDuty and did the Abbot Overlook Trail, checked out Jennings Pond Swimming Area and fishing pond, then drove home, visiting Robert V. Riddell for a half hour mostly to stretch my legs. 🎣 And I also took down camp, 🏕 trying to carefully pack things up, so things are somewhat clean and organized.

I don’t know the next time I’ll spend a night in the wilderness, 🐺 maybe as soon as Friday, but I do need to work on selling Big Red, and a lot of other things, but the weekend is starting to look nice. I have really gotten to like how nice the SuperDuty drives, especially once I got that steering wheel cover. And it’s nice being up in wilderness, makes me kind of wild, hanging out with all those cows in the hick towns. 👩‍🌾 But it needed to take a break, as I drunk too much beer and felt like was hacking it up after all that weed and cigs 🚬 I might have smoked over the weekend, though I don’t recall. Actually, it was far less then I would like to imagine, I don’t even drink that much beer 🍺or burn that much plastic these days. I did polish off the maybe a bit over 30-rack and had 3 ice creams sundaes 🍨but it was over 11 days. And a lot of cornmeal pancakes and fried zucchini in the interim. 🍆

Tonight though I need to go to the laundromat, 👕 get more groceries, some packaged in more plastic garbage, continue to clean things up. 🫧 I should wash the SuperDuty, though I guess that’s silly if I’m heading back out for shit dirt roads for camping by the weekend. 🏕 Don’t think I’ll have time today, and then tomorrow going out for Happy Hour 🥃 and I don’t drink and drive. I just drink, and only up a camp and those rare Happy Hour things that I do.

Map: Green Mountain National Forest North

Map: Green Mountain National Forest South

Leaving in a SuperDuty, don’t know when I’ll be back again 😩 🛻 🪹

Andy | August 9, 2026

Almost by default the nicest weather is the day you head home. Cool, not a cloud in the sky. I can’t believe already 11 days have come and gone since I headed out here on July 30th in the rain, and set things up as the rain clouds were pulling off. Back to the land of plastics recycling and plastic houses with solar panels at least if your woke and not a trash burning outlaw redneck.

The SuperDuty has been great, and in many ways the adventures of this summer vacation were unchanged from years past, though I tried to visit places I hadn’t been in a number of years just to change things up. 🚛 Yesterday, I did Montezuma – I did stop by the Nature Center briefly during a thunderstormb but my main focus was a 10 mile round trip paddle from Mud Lock to Mays Point via the Seneca River and Clyde River. 🚣‍♂️ Lots of interesting birds and wildlife – I realized the plastic thing I found in Big Red was the lens cap I was missing from my binoculars, so I can re-install that once I get home.

Home ultimately is where I will end up by the close of day – 8 PM, maybe 8:30 PM. My goal is to leave the Ithaca area sometime between 4 and 5 PM. 🥱 I don’t have a real set schedule, still chewing over which state parks to visit. ⌚ Maybe Buttermilk Falls State Park, do the gorge trail and swim there, it’s been a half dozen years since then. 🏊‍♂️ There is also a set of falls on the Six Mile Creek I visited when I was out here for Democratic party event in 2004, that I might consider visiting too. I’ll have to look at the Ithaca Trails app and other Finger Lakes Trail apps to see what are good possibilities. 🚶‍♀️ Actually so cool this morning, with the breeze I’m giving pause to the notion of swimming in favor of hiking or biking for the balance of the day. My beach towels are kind of dirty from all the sand over the past week.

I didn’t get ice yesterday, and predictably the milk was very curled. I poured the sludge into the bucket shitter, need to bury that with all the poop shortly. Bacteria should make all that crap rot quickly, far faster than any landfill. Ended up having a fire this morning, as I didn’t want to bring home a gag worthy milk jug only for it to smell before I could burn it up on the next trip. 🔥 Weather depending, that could be as soon as Friday, but I think I’d rather work a 5-day work week this week, and then maybe do one last trip to the Potholers and House Pond Campsite taking off a Friday, and driving north on Thursday after work. And maybe one more Schoharie trip to swim at Mine Kill before the pool closes for the summer with Labor Day Weekend. In less then four weeks, I’ll work remote that Friday from before Labor Day from Speculator, maybe Hardwood Hill. Working remote isn’t quite the same as vacation, but if I leave early before work, I can secure that nice campsite I like for Labor Day Weekend.

Besides the Montezuma Paddle, I went for a swim at Sampson State Park beach on Seneca Lake. 🪿 It’s not a real nice beach, but it is on the lake, a basic almost town-like beach you might find in Wells or Speculator in the Adirondacks. SwioKind of more chipped rock then sand. And then I road along the Lake Trail and some of the old roads of the Sampson Air Base, always a very enjoyable activity though it’s increasingly overrun by e-bikes. 🚲 Just fun to explore the abandoned roads and woods reverting back. Then I watched the sun set from Willard Cliffs, though it mostly set into the clouds. 🌇 Came back, had a fire, smoked some weed and pounded a few beers, fried up the remaining summer squash I had. I want to stop at the farm stand on the way back home outside of Greene, as when I was coming here they had a ton of zucchini and I’m hoping the same is true on the way home, as I want to stock up. 🍆

Taking camp down slowly but surely. 🏕️ There is just a lot of things to do, I want to keep the gear fairly organized and clean 🫧 for easier unpacking when I get home. But onwards today. I’m tired. But my bags are packed, I’m ready to go, leaving in the SuperDuty, don’t know when I’ll be back again.

18 nights in with the SuperDuty! 🚛

Andy | August 8, 2026

Three nights at Piseco-Powley and three nights at Moose River Plains leading up to and through the Independence Day 250 holiday. Three nights two weeks ago at Burnt-Rossman Hills and now nine nights so far out in the Finger Lakes. One more night left now. Then back to work, no more guzzling beer or smoking weed every day. Got to get healthy again. I had a good night’s sleep regardless, rain when I returned to camp and weed helped that.

Going to need propane soon I’m sure 🏮 but I’m hoping things will hold out to tomorrow morning or else I’ll have to build a small fire 🔥 in the morning to make coffee ☕ or maybe I just get a cup at Dunkin Doughnuts 🍩 after taking down camp. Definitely having a fire tonight to send the burnables up into smoke, 🗑️ just like all those rednecks do in Pennsylvania with their hillbilly incense. I can’t lie, I was disappointed driving back on Thursday along PA 329 and didn’t see a single cloud of black smoke from a smoldering trash fire. Soon enough it will be Sunday morning, I’ll be digging a hole to bury a week’s worth of shit and toilet paper, packing up the flags and heading out. Don’t Tread on Me smells a lot like cow shit and burnt plastic crap in my mind.

But first Geneva today. 🚵‍♂️ Hoping to leave around 8 AM and start riding at Seneca Lake State Park around 9 AM, riding out to Waterloo on the Cayuga-Seneca Trail, and then around both cities a bit. 🏢 Then head back down to Sampson State Park for some more of the same, go for a swim at the Sampson State Park beach, a paddle in Seneca Lake, and then before sunset swing by Willard Cliffs for the sunset. 🌇 Then drive back to camp, 🔥 have said fire, lay in the hammock for a bit, and then it will be Sunday. Take down camp, maybe a swim/visit at Buttermilk State Park or Taughannock, then start working my way east, maybe visiting at least a few more gorges and parks. The goal is to be home on Sunday by 8 pm, just so I can get things unpacked, not be driving in the pitch black, and shower before a nights sleep. Not sure if I will ride in on Monday, past the garbage dumps and garbage recycling plants, sewage treatment works, a lot depends on he weather. I’ll miss being out in the wilderness 🐺 but yeah, in a week or two I’ll be back for a weekend trip either to the Potholers or Schoharie. 🌲

So many things to get done when I get home. I got to figure out how to get rid of Big Red, 🛻 maybe lower the price, postit a few other places. Get the oil changed on the SuperDuty – I’ll just pay the dealership premium right now while it’s under warranty and then they can do any recalls while it’s there. 🛢️ It’s not like I drive that many miles that more then a yearly oil change will be required, but I want to do this first one early – around 3,000 miles – because of the initial break in of the engine. Probably do oil changes around 5k thereafter. Eventually once the truck is beyound warranty, I’ll go back to changing my own oil, I like the waste oil for starting and perking up fires. Just don’t tell a liberal that. 🫢 Honest, I recycle ♻️ my paper and plastics into hillbilly incense like the good ol’ boys do in Pennsylvania. Also want to get my truck oil under coated this autumn. While I think eventually it will be worthwhile to get an underbody sprayer and my own bucket 🪣 of lamolin oil spray, the first time I figure it best to let the professionals do it and not cover the exhaust and make a lot of stinky smoke.

Sunset is rapidly approaching. 🌇 Let me get the kayak on the roof of my truck, 🛶 and get moving on this morning. Have a nice day, and remember, the Pope Smokes Dope, as David Peel once sung.

Regrets 🛎️

Andy | August 7, 2026

I could have been heading home from Michigan today, heading through Ohio, overnighting somewhere there and then back to Chautaqua County tomorrow night. And I could have gone to Geneva and Sampson State Park today and watched the sun set over Seneca Lake from the cliffs of Willard WMA. But I didn’t, the sky and radar looked so bad and why drive all that way north only to turn around in the rain and violent thunderstorms. And the forecast seemed so negative.

I took a toke, cracked open a beer and knew I couldn’t drive for at least a few hours to be safe. But as lunch wrapped up it was apparent weather there would be no improvement despite a better sounding forecast. By mid afternoon it turned to heavy rain, I ended up climbing into the bed of the truck. The new cap is quite water proof even in severe weather. That said, I think the old cap on Big Red started to leak after the crash I got in during the summer of 2014.

It’s fine. The gas I saved staying in camp today more than made up for tacking Geneva onto a trip to Sampson State Park tomorrow. I’ll leave early, go up to Geneva and park at the Seneca State Park. Ride maybe the Seneca – Cayuga Canal Trail, been a few years since I did that, maybe poke around Geneva a bit on the mountain bike. Then Sampson State Park. I’ll bring my kayak for a paddle on Seneca Lake, they have a small but decent little beach there. Then maybe ride some of the old roads of the airforce base, lots of wildlife and random old junk to be found along the many abandoned but mostly paved roads. The lake shore trail is nice, and the sunset from Willard Cliffs is a nice way to end out vacation.

Sunday take down camp. I want to be home by 8 pm so leaving Ithaca by 4 pm works. I have clothes set out at home for Monday and enough food and supplies to make it through the first day back at work. There is at least one gorge I’m thinking about visiting in Ithaca, and time allowing, a good leg strecher at Robert Ridell State Park outside of Ithaca might be a good warranted break.

I can look back and say I did a lot on summer vacation but it always seems less than years before but then again this year was two nights less than last year. But it was terribly humid many days, thunderstorms and rain meant two days stuck at camp. And I’ve been doing the same base camp in the Finger Lakes National Forest for a decade and a half now, so I can’t aggregate all past adventures into a single week. And there is still future years and trips ahead. The SuperDuty is young even if I’m increasingly not young. But I don’t have livestock or a homestead to attend to immediately so I’m still free to travel for now.

Second Friday of summer vacation 🏕️

Andy | August 7, 2026

Last two full days in the Finger Lakes. Continued hot and humid today, with another significant risk of thunderstorms come the afternoon. In other words, summer.

Today’s agenda is to go up to Sampson State Park and maybe later on to Geneva State Park if time and weather allows. 🏊‍♂️ Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake has the only state swim beach on the lake, plus opportunity to kayak if the water is not too rough, and all those miles of old Sampson Airforce Base roads to ride around mostly traffic free along with a rail trail. 🚵‍♂️

Yesterday, I went down to Corning, rode around the city for a bit and sampled the farmers market, checked out the pedestrian bridge and Corning Glass headquarters. I really did not feel like heading inside and spending all day and $30 in admission to look at a bunch of glass. 🫗 A bunch of unburnable trash doesn’t excite me much. Instead I checked out the Houghton Land Preserve, the Springbrook Nature Preserve at Corning Community College and then spent the balance of the day down at McCarthy Hill State Forest and the former Pinnacle State Golf Course. 🐸 Honestly, I really enjoyed the Pinnacle Golf Course, now that it’s slowly but surely rewilding itself, the buildings and golf holes gone, but the area is still mostly grasses and milkweed, 🌸 with excellent views of the surrounding hills and valleys.

Thunder came rumbling through most of the day, but outside of a few drops that hardly got me wet, it seemed to miss me all day. ⛈️ I am not sure if I can count on such luck today, indeed the roads were wet driving back, and it was so humid that I had run the windshield wipers to keep it clean. Drove back via Cowansque Lake, 🚤 and then Tioga Junction over to Elmira and then back to Watkins Glen. Not the most direct route but I’m on vacation 🩴 and I had hoped to spot some more burning barrels 🛢️ in Pennsylvania. Didn’t see anybody burning shit but that part of PA 287 is more urbanized though I got stuck behind a pickup towing 🛻 another junk truck that had something dragging and burning along the way. Yuck. 🤮

Had a little fire 🔥 after getting a peanut 🥜 butter cup sundae 🍨 at Glen Dairy Bar and ice 🧊 and some olive 🫒 oil. Gassed up the SuperDuty hopefully the last time for the trip in Edwin, and outside of ice should be good for the rest of the trip. ⛽ $115 in fuel. Roughly $295 for the trip but outside of ice cream, food and beer 🍺 I’ve not had a lot of extra expenses. My September credit 💳 card bill will be up there though. Mostly needed the fire to get caught up on the garbage 🗑️ it was unreasonably hot 🫠 with the humidity but still fun to watch the flicker from the hammock.

Soon enough though I’ll be heading home 🏘️ on Sunday. I got to see about selling Big Red it’s been quiet lately but I’ve not been pushing the listings. Maybe I need to cut the price. At this point I want to get rid of the truck 🚛. I need to get an oil change done on the SuperDuty and I want to get the undercarriage oil covered before winter. Then there are three weekends remaining until Labor Day Weekend, need to see if I can get to the Potholers one other long weekend and maybe to Mine Kill State Park Pool 🏊‍♂️ one more time. Labor Day Weekend will be Speculator most likely as long as the weather is reasonable.